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ASSYRIOLOGY 



ITS USE AND ABUSE IN OLD TESTAMENT 
STUDY 



BY 

FRANCIS BROWN 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OP BIBLICAL PHILOLOGY IN THE 
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK 







NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1885 



^,1 



COPYRIGHT, 1SS5, BY 

CHAKLES SCEIBIvER'S SONS 



TROW8 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 



IN TROD TIC TOR Y NOTE. 

It is the custom, in the Union Theological 
Seminary., to have each year of study 
opened with a public discourse from one 
of its Faculty. The following pages con- 
tain an address, given pursuant to this 
custom, September 18, 1884, in the Adams 
Chapel, Lenox Hill. In its printed form 
the illustrations are somewhat more copi- 
ous than they could be in its oral delivery, 
a few verbal alterations have been made, 
frequent references added, and a bibliog- 
raphy appended. It is issued, without 
other change, as a slight contribution to 
the literature of a momentous subject. 

Union Theological Seminary, 

New York City, March 31, 1885. 



ASSYRIOLOGY: 

ITS USE AND ABUSE IN OLD TESTAMENT 
STUDY. 



Mr. President, 

Brethren, and Friends of the Seminary : 

You will understand the hesitation with 
which, at our first public meeting in this 
new home of the Seminary, when our cir- 
cumstances and surroundings all point 
toward the future, and the most fitting 
word would seem to be one that should 
be born of the occasion, and express its 
significance, I venture to lead your thoughts 
backward to an ancient and long-buried 
civilization, remote from our own, not 
only in time and locality, not only in re- 



2 ASSYBIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

lationships of blood and language, but in 
almost all its conscious interests and aims. 
It would be wholly out of place to do so, 
if we were not Bible students, and if, in 
the surprising revolutions of history, ifc 
were not given to this forgotten people 
to come once more to the front, throwing 
light on old problems and opening fresh 
avenues to discovery for the Old Testa- 
ment scholar. 

The product of each new source of 
knowledge is apprehended only by slow 
degrees. A long time is needed to exhaust 
it. Patient thought is needed to set it in 
its right relations with the stock of truth 
already on hand. Scientific advance is 
through guesses — more or less rash — des- 
tined often to ephemeral life, and marking 
only the approximations of the mind to 
sound and accurate learning. No depart- 
ment of science can make real progress 
without constant and searching criticism, 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 3 

that zeal may not outrun knowledge, nor 
brilliant conjecture do duty as secure fact. 
But when the matter of research is 
closely related to our sacred documents, 
where truth is most needful, and mistake 
most disastrous, then such criticism, both 
calm and intrepid, is demanded with 
especial emphasis. And it is from this 
standpoint that it ought to be profitable 
to survey the great subject of Assyrian 
discovery. The remarks just made are 
fully applicable here. Assyriology has its 
guesses, and it has its accurate knowledge. 
It has felt the benefit of rigid critical ex- 
animation at some points, and has suffered, 
at others, for lack of it. In some directions 
it has borne rich fruit for the Old Testa- 
ment exegete, but has been allowed to do 
harm in others. I trust, therefore, that 
it may not be thought foreign to those 
great matters which are to occupy us 
through the coming months, if we con- 



4 ASSYBIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

sider, for a little, some of tlie Uses and 
Abuses of Assyriology in Old Testament 
Study. 

Assyriology is the somewhat inadequate 
term employed to denote the scientific in- 
vestigation of the history, literature, and 
art of the Babylonians and Assyrians, as 
these have been revealed through excava- 
tion on the sites of their ancient cities. 
In all human research there have never 
been more surprising discoveries. The 
constitution and external fortunes of great 
peoples, their religion and morals, their 
languages and writings, even, to some de- 
gree, their personal habits and modes of 
life, have been suddenly disclosed. Cen- 
turies that were saved from utter blank- 
ness only by wild and conflicting stories 
from Greek historians have taken on pre- 
cision and life and movement. Other 
centuries, wholly unknown before, have 
been rescued out of the abyss of the past. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. O 

A new, and vast, and varied canvas has 
been added to the panorama of history. 

And it was perceived, at once, that this 
was not a matter for the secular historian 
alone. The peoples who thus emerged 
from the darkness were the very ones 
whose destinies intertwined themselves so 
fatally with those of the Hebrew nation. 
We had, all of us, heard their names from 
childhood ; though we had little under- 
stood the involved machinery of national 
life which projected those devastating ir- 
ruptions from the East, before which the 
northern and the southern kingdoms of 
Israel successively fell. It was therefore 
not strange, that, to the eager students of 
philology and history who hailed the new 
discoveries, and plunged with energy into 
the work of their elucidation, were added 
numbers of those to whom Apologetics 
seemed the most important field of human 
learning, and who, with a more or less 



6 assyeiology : its use a:nd abuse 

hasty equipment for the task, began at 
once to make Assyriology serviceable in 
defending the Scriptures. The conse- 
quence was the appropriation of valuable 
matter, often effective employment of it, 
great and infectious enthusiasm, but a sad 
lack of cool judgment and scholarly pa- 
tience. 

Before considering the great positive 
benefits which Biblical study has derived 
from the cuneiform records, I beg you to 
recall a few of the abuses which have 
crept into some of the work of those who 
have employed them to establish the truth 
of Scripture. 

I. The root of the misuse of Assyri- 
ology in Bible study has been, as already 
hinted, an ill-directed and excessive Apol- 
ogetics. Into the sources of this Apolo- 
getic spirit, it is not necessary to enter in 
detail. That the matter-of-fact Anglo- 
Saxon mind, tenacious of its traditions, re- 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 7 

membering the religious struggles of other 
ages, and clinging to their hard-earned 
fruits, insisting with an energy which expe- 
rience has intensified upon the indivisible 
connection of theory with practice — belief 
with life, — brought by its practical and ag- 
gressive conception of Christianity into fre- 
quent and prolonged hostilities with skep- 
ticism in many forms, accustomed to fight 
its own battles, and eager to pre-occupy 
the strategic points, should in our day be 
inclined to lay too much stress, relatively, 
upon warfare in defence of the truth, can 
hardly be a suiprise to us. No thought- 
ful man can lightly esteem that branch of 
scientific theology which consists in a de- 
fence of fundamental, revealed truth from 
the attacks of its adversaries. An impor- 
tant place in theological study is with 
reason assigned to it, But it may be 
questioned, whether the Apologetic temper, 
always on the defensive, always looking 



8 ASSY BIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

for assaults, and prepared, at the first blow, 
to strike vigorously back — is a healthy 
frame of mind for a Christian thinker. 
It accustoms him to a timorous view of 
truth. It is likely to issue in a narrow 
zeal, which will oppose every new thing, 
through fear that it may, in some way, 
imperil the old. It tends to prevent the 
taking up of new and genuine elements 
into the sum of truth, the modifying of 
statements to make them harmonize with 
advancing knowledge. There is danger, 
that in protecting the inherited treasures 
of the past, it will hinder the accumula- 
tion of more ; that in securing the achieve- 
ments of bygone centuries, it will fetter 
the present with their limitations. An 
Apologetics of this sort runs the risk of 
crippling itself, by insisting upon the use 
of old methods and weapons against mod- 
ern and well-equipped opponents. It is 
likely to grow eager for certain forms 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 9 

of truth, rather than for essential truth. 
It inclines to make no distinction be- 
tween eternal verities and the forms of 
revelation in which those verities are em- 
bodied, and to venture the whole sub- 
stance of the former upon its apprehension 
of the latter. 

Such characteristics have been often 
perceptible in the discussions of recent 
years over matters of Biblical Criticism 
and Dogmatics, over points of historical, 
and natural, and philosophical science. 
But the field of what may be called Archae- 
ological Apologetics affords some special 
opportunities for observing them, because 
the discoveries in this field have been so 
generally presented to the world as being, 
what they really are on the whole, most 
favorable to the interests which Apologet- 
ics defends. Archaeology has not assailed 
fundamental truth, as natural science has 
sometimes been foolishly made to do. 



10 ASSYEIOLOGY *. ITS USE AND ABUSE 

The Apologetic temper in relation to 
Archaeology may therefore be observed, so 
to speak, in its natural movement, not 
provoked and forced into a violent posi- 
tion, by attack, but acting spontaneously, 
in accordance with the tendencies which 
have become habitual with it, and under 
their guidance using the materials which 
excavation and research have put into its 
hand. 

It is amid these circumstances that those 
abuses have sprung up, in the employment 
of Assyriology for Bible study, especial- 
ly in popular treatments of the subject, 
which we ought to deprecate and try to 
abolish. 

(1.) One abuse of Assyriology for pur- 
poses of Old Testament study is overhaste 
in its employment. By this I do not mean 
to imply any doubt as to the solid basis of 
knowledge upon which the published de- 
cipherments of the cuneiform inscriptions 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 11 

rest. But it took a I0112 time to establish 
that basis. And although the general val- 
ues of the characters rest upon the cumu- 
lative evidence of many decades, and the 
growing experience of the decipherer and 
translator is constantly giving him greater 
ease in his processes, and more entire con- 
fidence in his results, it is impossible to 
do anything hastily that will be of lasting 
value. At the best, first results are pro- 
visional. Early translations are approxi- 
mate only. Some detail, at first unper- 
ceived or misunderstood, may change the 
scope of a whole inscription. And, more 
than this, to see the newly discovered facts 
in their right relations — to perceive their 
meaning when combined with other facts, 
and to work them all together into one 
compact, enduring structure, is not a mat- 
ter for the first day or first week. The 
Assyriologists themselves have been guilty 
of many sins of excessive haste, in the in- 



12 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

toxication of discovery. But although 
their science has suffered thereby in the 
eyes of other scholars, and a considera- 
ble number of soundly trained philologists 
and historians has been held aloof, still, 
as far as Assyriology itself is concerned, 
it will outlive these errors. Its votaries 
will learn caution, as the excitement of 
exploration cools, and their number in- 
creases. The chief harm has been done 
to Bible students who have caught at 
their dicta. The Assyriologists themselves 
have, of course, been primarily at fault ; 
but the Biblical scholar cannot shake off 
his own responsibility. He has not only, 
to his undoing, taken the hasty conclu- 
sions of the specialists, and worked them 
into his expositions, but he has himself 
drawn hasty conclusions from them. It is 
curious to see how the same excess of the 
Apologetic spirit makes its possessor at 
one time too conservative, and at another 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 18 

too radical — now over-cautious, and now 
rash. Over against carefully generalized 
propositions of natural science, accepted 
by great bodies of scientific workers, and 
affording fair explanations of classes of 
facts, we have seen a tolerably unyielding 
front ; over against well-ascertained re- 
sults of the literary criticism of the Bible 
we have seen a mental stolidity which ar- 
gument could not affect ; but for theories 
and suggestions from Assyriology, often 
not half so well supported or understood, 
there has been, in some quarters, an un- 
seemly voracity; everything has been 
swallowed; the simplest rules of critical 
inquiry have been forgotten. There has 
been blind trusting to authority, without 
weighing it, and an assumption of fact 
upon the mere say-so of some presumably 
honest scholar. A mean between these 
extremes, more openness of mind to scien- 
tific proof, and less greedy snatching at 



14 A 88 YRI0L0GY I ITS U8E AXD ABUSE 

everything which seems to offer a plausi- 
ble argument for what we believe would 
give truth a better chance. 

The unfortunate results of too great 
precipitation in this matter can be readily 
illustrated : 

E.g. : Between nine and ten years ago, 
one of the foremost Assyriologists (no 
longer living;) wrote to the editor of an 
English newspaper the announcement that 
he had found what he thought would be, 
" to the general public, the most interest- 
ing and remarkable cuneiform tablet yet 
discovered. This turns out to contain," he 
says, " the story of man's original inno< 
cence, of the temptation, and of the fall." * 
This announcement he repeated and am- 
plified in a book published not long after, 2 

1 George Smith : Letter printed in the Daily Tele- 
graph, March 4, 1875. 

2 George Smith : Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 
11, 13 sq., 81 sq. London, 1875 ; New York, 1876. 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 15 

— of course the statement was echoed 
and re-echoed ; after the discovery of the 
Babylonian Deluge and Creation tablets 
nothing could be too great a surprise. 
Everybody felt that the third chapter of 
Genesis had received powerful support. 
Many persons did not make it clear to 
themselves what the precise kind and de- 
gree of that support was, but we need not 
enter upon that inquiry just now. The 
important thing is that it was hot long be- 
fore other decipherers were able to show 
conclusively that this first, hasty transla- 
tion of the newly found inscription was 
mistaken/ and the chief evidence for a 
Babylonian story of the Fall was thus de- 
stroyed. But the use of his translation in 
discussions about Genesis did not at once 



1 Friedr. Delitzscli, in George Smith's Chaldaische 
Genesis, pp. 301 sq. Leipzig, 1876. George Smith : 
Chaldean Account of Genesis, rev. edition, by Sayce, 
p. vii., etc., etc. London and New York, 1880. 



16 ASSYEIOLOGY '. ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

cease. 1 And even where it has been given 
up, some of his corroborative proofs have 
been made to support the thesis that the 
Babylonians had such a story, though we 
have not as yet discovered it. This is not 
impossible, nor even improbable, but there 
is a wide difference between expecting a 
discovery and making one, and then build- 
ing on what you have made. 

Another illustration is found in theories 
about the garden of Eden. The notion 
that Assyriology proves that the Baby- 
lonians had a legend of Eden, and located 
it somewhere in their own territory, has 
cropped out at various times within the 
past decade or two. 2 It has been caught 
at eagerly by those who were troubled 



1 E.g., C. Geikie : Hours with the Bible, i., p. 122. 
New York, 1881. 

2 E.g., Sir H. Rawlinson : Journ. Royal Asiatic So- 
ciety, 1869. Annual Report. Friedrich Delitzsch : Wo 
Lag das Paradies. Leipzig, 1881. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 17 

about the exact geographical interpreta- 
tion of Gen. ii., and in its most recent 
form appeared to some of them to satisfy 
even in its details the requirements of 
the Biblical narrative. And yet, where- 
ever this theory has been submitted to 
thorough tests, its lack of sure foundation 
has become evident. 1 

The attempt has been likewise made to 
confirm theories of the Sabbath, by refer- 
ence to a similar institution among the 
Babylonians, 2 but the result has been to 
make it appear that, with our present 
knowledge, little intrinsic resemblance, 
and no historical relationship can be 
safely asserted as beyond question. 3 

The question of the antiquity of the 
Babylonian civilization is another instance 

1 See Old Testament Student, September, 1884. 

2 See, especially, James Johnston : Catholic Presby- 
terian, January, 1881. 

3 See Presbyterian Eeview, October, 1882. W. Lotz 
(Quaest. Sabbat., Leipzig, 1882) is more confident. 

2 



18 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AJS T D ABUSE 

in point. A very distinguished historian * 
has been at the pains to prove that the 
earliest Babylonian civilization did not 
date beyond b.c. 2300, or, at the farthest, 
2500. This seemed, until recently, likely 
enough, though his argument was not 
demonstrative; but within a year or two 
almost all the Assyriologists have adopted 
as trustworthy the statement of a Baby- 
lonian tablet that one of the early Shemi- 
tic kings was reigning there about e.g. 
3800, and place the Akkadian civiliza- 
tion still earlier, taking up, on a new 
ground, the view that Bunsen 2 published, 
in the last generation. 

The Assyriologists, it must be admitted, 
have rather a slender basis for their date, 
since the tablet referring to this ancient 



J G. Rawlinson : Origin of Nations, Chap. III. Lon- 
don, 1877 ; New York, 1881. 

2 Egypt's Place in Universal History, iii., pp. 361, 451, 
etc. London, 1859, 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 19 

king was inscribed in the sixth century, 
but its discovery hints too strongly at 
the likelihood of further evidence look- 
ing the same way, to be comfortable for 
those committed to the other view. 

Now the blameworthy thing in all this 
is not the mistakes. The most careful 
scholar may make mistakes, of fact and 
of inference. But the blameworthy thing 
is that there has been no adequate care 
to guard against mistakes. Assyriology 
would be a more useful aid to exegesis 
to-day if the energy that has been spent 
in glorifying it, on the ground of its real 
or supposed contributions to our knowl- 
edge, had been devoted to a patient in- 
quiry into the real value and bearing of 
these contributions. There has been too 
much going on the theory that every asser- 
tion which seemed to confirm the Old 
Testament was therefore, as a matter of 
course, a true statement, and any ques- 



20 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS L'SE AND ABUSE 

tioning of it a covert attack upon the Old 
Testament. 

The result of such a habit, pushed to 
its logical issue, could not be doubtful. 
There would be not only the wasted labor 
of erecting worthless defences, but there 
would be the necessity of abandoning 
those defences whenever the attack should 
come, with all the loss of moral force due 
to a constant shifting of position. True, 
we may expect to learn, and ought to 
wish to learn. The defence of to-day 
ought not to be the same line of fortifi- 
cations that served the last generation. 
But a constant, and enforced shifting of 
ground, made needful not because the 
fortifications are antiquated, but because 
though new they are not shot-proof, is, 
to say the least, undignified for champions 
of divine truth, and is demoralizing to 
the rank and file. There is no need of 
such a hand-to-mouth Apologetics. There 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 21 

is no exigency which requires this catch- 
ing at any and every weapon. We want 
well-considered results that have some 
prospect of permanence. 

It ought to be clearly understood by 
every man Avho takes it upon himself to 
speak or write in behalf of the Bible that 
there is no possibility of reaching assured 
conclusions except by calm, patient, can- 
did, prolonged and critical examination of 
all the facts. It is not always that one 
man can go through the whole process ; in 
the case of busy ministers it is rarely pos- 
sible. But there must be some kind of 
sufficient assurance that the process has 
been carried through, by some one com- 
petent to do it. When the same man is 
Assyriologist and exegete, he ought, as 
exegete, to demand of himself, as Assyri- 
ologist, the most rigid observance of the 
rules of critical investigation. Conclu- 
sions must not be jumped at, but reached 



22 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

from weighing of evidence. He may, as 
Assyriologist, have his hypotheses ; science 
advances by setting up hypotheses, and 
working from them, till they are dis- 
placed by better. But then he must not, 
as exegete, treat the hypothesis as an 
established fact, and build a dogmatic ex- 
position upon it. 

Exegetes and apologists who are not 
themselves at home in the inscriptions 
ought to demand of the special investiga- 
tors that they give them nothing as as- 
sured result which has not been thor- 
oughly tested and sifted. They ought to 
demand that fact be sharply distinguished 
from guess; that definite and intelligible 
reasons be assigned for opinions. They 
ought to distrust popular and cursory 
statements of surprising discoveries. They 
ouo\ht to learn something;' of the character 
and way of reasoning* of those to whom 
they look as authorities, in order to have 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 23 

a notion of the probable worth of their 
opinions. In short, they ought to make it 
a matter of conscience to take each step 
with as clear reason as their most earnest 
efforts, under the conditions and with the 
equipment which their circumstances fur- 
nish, can possibly secure. It will be a 
good day for Old Testament studies when 
this conies to be the prevailing habit 
among Old Testament students. 

(2.) Another abuse of Assyriology for 
purposes of Old Testament study, and one 
so flagrant as not to need long discussion, is 
the refusal to accept its clear facts, in the 
interest of some theory of interpretation. 
We need to discriminate here. When an 
Assyrian statement can be equally well 
explained in two different ways, we have 
the right, and are bound, as we should be 
in all historical study, to take that expla- 
nation which harmonizes with a corre- 
sponding Biblical statement. It may even 



24 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AID ABUSE 

be scientifically allowable to modify an 
Assyrian statement for sufficient cause. 
Thus when Sennacherib recounts the suc- 
cesses of his great Palestinian campaign, 
and puts the tribute of Hezekiah at the 
end, instead of near the beginning, revers- 
ing the order of 2 Kings xviii., we can see 
a reason for that, which confirms the ac- 
curacy of the latter. For it is most 
natural that the Assyrian king should 
have been desirous of putting the best 
face on his disappointing expedition by 
rounding off his account with a descrip- 
tion of his spoils; while it is hardly 
credible that, after Jerusalem had success- 
fully defied his threats, Hezekiah should 
have paid him tribute. So, also, it is not 
a warping of Assyriological facts to sup- 
plement and explain them by Bible facts, 
which the inscriptions ignore. Sennache- 
rib does not tell us why he suddenly re- 
turned to Nineveh, while apparently, from 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 25 

his own account, in the full tide of military- 
success. A historian with no predilection in 
favor of the Bible, called to choose between 
the mice-eaten quivers and bows, which 
Herodotus gossips about, and the provi- 
dentially ordered pestilence of the book of 
Kings, might well prefer the latter. 

But when the sense of the inscription is 
distinct and complete, then it is not legit- 
imate to put another sense into it for har- 
monistic purposes. You may deny its 
truth, if you choose to take the responsi- 
bility of that, but you have no right to 
warp its meaning. A noteworthy illustra- 
tion of what I mean is the hypothesis of a 
break in the Eponym Canon. I hope I 
shall not be thought too technical in ex- 
plaining it. The Eponym Canon is a list 
of officials, who, after the fashion of Greek 
archons and Roman consuls, gave names 
to the successive years. A complete list 
of this sort would give us a secure chrono- 



26 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE A^D ABUSE 

logical basis for Assyrian history. In 
fact, we have no one complete list, but six or 
seven partial lists, overlapping each other, 
so as to cover altogether a period of two 
hundred and fifty years, from the beginning 
of the ninth to the middle of the seventh 
century b.c. There is no internal proof, and 
no indication from all the cuneiform lit- 
erature that the succession of names thus 
given is not continuous ; no suggestion of 
a break. And yet a respectable number 
of chronolooists have assumed a break of 
forty-six years, to make a place in this 
interval for the kins; Pul, of 2 Kin^s xv. 
and 1 Chr. v., whose name did not appear 
in the inscriptions. They have done this 
in spite of the fact that the eponyni chro- 
nology is fixed on one side of their break 
by agreement with the list of Babylonian 
kings which Claudius Ptolemy, near the 
beginning of our era, made up in Greek, 
on Babylonian authority, and fixed on the 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 27 

other by an eclipse of the sun in b.c. 763 
(they have taken advantage of a less note- 
worthy eclipse in b.c. 809) ; they have 
acted in the face of the convincing histor- 
ical proof that Pul was identical with 
Tiglathpileser (II.), solely on the ground 
that Tiglathpileser cannot, according to 
their understanding of Biblical dates, have 
been a contemporary of Menahem of Is- 
rael, with whose name Pul's is associated, 
2 Kings xv. 19. This view is gradually los- 
ing its adherents, but has been main- 
tained by reputable scholars. 1 The vice 
of this method of handling the inscrip- 
tions lies here : that it involves a playing 
fast-and-loose with well-attested historical 
documents ; hailing them eagerly when they 
say at once what you want them to say, but 

' Particularly in France ; see J. Oppert : Salomon et 
ses Successeurs, Paris, 1877 ; E. Ledrain : Histoire 
d'Israel, 2 vols., Paris, 1879-82. The quietus has prob- 
ably been given to this hypothesis by recent discovery. 
See below. 



28 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

discrediting them with all your might when 
their utterances are troublesome to you ; it 
means that you are unwilling to wait, un- 
able to hold questions of harmony in abey- 
ance, insist on building your own wall, 
and building at once, and building on -your 
own foundation ; not courageous enough to 
be candid ; not large-minded enough to rec- 
ognize a well-established fact outside of the 
Bible as possessed of all the rights of a 
fact, and claiming its lawful place in the 
complete series of facts. The danger in this 
particular case is, I think, practically over- 
come, but the same inclinations are still 
alive. They spring from an affection for 
God's "Word which is not to be lightly es- 
teemed, and a purpose to defend it at all 
hazards, which does honor to him that 
cherishes it, but they endanger the interests 
for which they fight, because they are tinged 
by fear of the full light of all the truth. 
It is a great pity to be afraid of facts. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 29 

(3.) This brings us to another point. 
It is an abuse of Assyriology for purposes 
of Old Testament study to ignore the new 
problems with which it confronts the 
Biblical scholar. Assyriology is not a 
mere key to unlock doors. It offers a vast 
and complicated series of facts. It throws 
clear light on some things, and partial 
light on others, and reveals dim outlines 
of yet others. If we put ourselves in that 
light, we must be willing to see all it 
shows us. Assyriology is not simply an 
interpreter, that stands outside and ex- 
plains our Bibles to us. It makes its way 
into our Bibles, and even while it smooths 
over some of the old difficulties, it some- 
times unearths new ones no less trouble- 
some. It is the imperative duty of those 
who study — most of all those who teach, 
or expect to teach — the Bible, to recognize 
these new problems in all their gravity 
and far-reaching import. Intelligence and 



30 AS3YRI0L0GY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

honesty, love for the Scriptures and loyalty 
to truth, all demand it. The new ques- 
tions must be faced without prejudice and 
discussed without passion. I do not mean 
that they must at once and indiscrim- 
inately be made topics for popular dis- 
course ; though I believe we ought to be 
looking forward to a time, and preparing 
for it, when the average membership of 
our churches shall have a faith so full of 
living nerves and muscles that it will hold 
itself upright beneath even such searching 
inquiries as these ; and wise instruction is 
very nourishing to such a faith ; still, a 
habitual and emphatic magnifying of these 
problems is needless and would clo harm, 
as much as the ignoring of them. But 
whoever undertakes to make use of As- 
syriology in behalf of the Old Testament 
cannot shun them, for himself, and there 
will be many cases which will prove the 
wisdom of keeping the bright and eager 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 31 

and truthful minds that come under his 
influence fairly well informed of the ob- 
scure matters as well as of the plain ones. 
It gives the enemy a great advantage if he 
can be the one to drop an ugly-looking 
fact, colored as he can color it, into the 
mind of one whom you are set to teach ; 
so that the pupil will suppose you did not 
know it, and despise you, or concealed it, 
and distrust you. Of course the right pre- 
sentation of difficulties is a matter for very 
delicate treatment, but it can be learned. 
The first and chief thing is that we appre- 
hend ourselves what the difficulties are. 

The so-called Genesis tablets, already 
referred to, furnish an illustration. Take, 
for example the Deluge tablet, 1 with its 
divine command to build the ship, its ac- 
count of the embarkation, its picture of 
the oncoming and the effects of the flood, 

1 See Lenormant : Beginnings of History, English 
Translation, pp. 575 sq. New York, 1882. 



32 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AWD ABUSE 

the ship grounding at length on a moun- 
tain, the sending out of dove and raven, 
the sacrifice after disembarking, and all 
the details of its correspondence with the 
Hebrew account. There are disagree- 
ments, no doubt, but the resemblances are 
sufficiently striking. How are these re- 
semblances to be explained ? Is there a 
literary relationship between the two ? 
If so, of what sort ? Which depends on 
the other ; or are both dependent upon 
some earlier form of the story ? If so, 
a°:ain, which of the two comes the nearer 
to that earlier form ? And what was the 
character of that earlier form ? If, as 
now seems most likely, the Ur Kasclim 
from which Abram came out was in Baby- 
lonia, does this give any clue to the pres- 
ence of the story among the Hebrews ? 
And when did Abram come out ? Can it 
be proved that the story was current in 
Babylonia before he left that land ? Where 






IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 33 

did it come into being, and how ? Did it 
originate with the Shemitic Babylonians, 
or was it borrowed by them from the 
Akkadians, those imperfectly known par- 
ents of so large a part of the Shemitic 
civilization? What light is thrown by 
these inquiries upon the catastrophe which 
the narrative describes — its nature, its ex- 
tent, its result ? 

It will be seen that such inquiries as 
these are not questions of abstract science, 
but have to do with the structure of the 
first of our sacred books, the sources of 
its materials, and, not indeed the fact of its 
inspiration — that is not touched — but the 
mode of that inspiration's working. They 
open up, for example, the whole discus- 
sion, whether the early narratives of Gen- 
esis are matter of special revelation to 
their immediate human author; whether 
they have been handed down from re- 
motest antiquity under a miraculous super- 



34 ASSYKIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

vision, which kept them free from ad- 
mixture of error ; whether they belong to 
the common stock of popular, Shemitic 
tradition, cleansed and ennobled and made 
fit vehicles for spiritual teaching, under the 
special influence of God; or what other 
explanation of their present appearance 
and form may suggest itself. For a like 
set of questions can be put with refer- 
ence to the Creation tablets of Babylonia, 
as far as they agree in form with Gen. i. 
and ii., and if there were a Babylonian 
story of the Fall, we should have the same 
problems, in some respects more intricate, 
the closer the external resemblance with 
the Hebrew narratives. Dogmatism might 
cut the knot, but our duty as Christian 
scholars is to untie it, if we can, and, at 
all events, in the interests of God's truth 
to recognize it, and weave no theory in 
whose meshes that knot shall be merely 
hidden, put out of sight, and forgotten. 






IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 35 

The divine origin of the Bible, the more 
strongly it is believed, will impel us the 
more forcibly to a complete apprehension 
of all the facts which have to do with it, 
and to a more persistent assurance that the 
Bible will not suffer, but will gain, indefi- 
nitely and permanently, in the appreciation 
and faith of men, the more freely these 
reverent questions are raised, and the more 
thoroughly they are settled. 

Take a different illustration. An an- 
cient cuneiform record bears a story — call 
it legend or history, as you please — of the 
King Sargon of Agane ; how he was born 
in retirement, placed by his mother in a 
basket of rushes, launched on a river, 
rescued and brought up by a stranger; 
after which he became king. 1 Is there 
any connection between this story and 

1 See G. Smith, Trans. Soc. Bib. Archseol., i., p. 46. 
1872. Cf. Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 224. 1876. 
Eev. ed., p. 319 sq. 1880. 



36 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

that of Moses ? If so, what \ It has been 
said that the stories of the exposure of Rom- 
ulus aud Cyrus and other unfortunate in- 
fants were later reflections — echoes — of the 
Hebrew account of Moses. Whether that 
was likely or not, here we have a kino; who 
lived a thousand years before Moses — per- 
haps much more. It is believed that the 
story was told of him several hundred years 
at least before Moses was born. Is there 
simply a coincidence here ? I do not doubt 
for a moment that there is some explana- 
tion, honorable to the Sacred Record and 
satisfactory to the literary phenomena, but 
what is it ? The best that one of the most 
popular and conservative of recent writers 
on such topics can say is : "Acting either 
on the hint of this strange legend, or led 
in a like case to a similar course, Jochebed 
prepared a little ark of papyrus," etc. 1 

l G. Geikie: Hours with the Bible, ii., p. 92. New 
York, 1881. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT SUTDY. 37 

The former hyj)othesis is conceivable, but 
unlikely; the latter, again possible, but 
very strange. The problem is still there. 

As a third illustration, take the new- 
est Cyrus Inscriptions. There are two of 
them, 1 which give the account from dif- 
ferent stand-points (that of the zealous 
priest and that of the annalist) of the 
capture of Babylon by Cyrus' troops, B.C. 
538. I mention only one of the points of 
difficulty which arise when these inscrip- 
tions are compared with statements in the 
book of Daniel. They seem to leave no 
place for " Darius the Median." Gobryas, 
general of Cyrus' forces, entered Babylon, 
according to their statement, in July, of 
the seventeenth year of Nabonidus, the 
reigning King of Babylon. Cyrus fol- 



1 A cylinder (see Sir H. Rawlinson, Journal of Royal 
Asiatic Society, January, 1880), and a tablet (see Theoph. 
G. Pinches, Transactions of Soc. of Bibl. Archaeol., vii., 
1. 1880.) 



33 ASSYEIOLOGY \ ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

lowed him soon after ; having at once de- 
posed Nabonidus, and assumed the royal 
l^ovrer. The Darius who from Dan. v. 31, 
vi 1-28, etc., would appear to have fol- 
lowed the last Babylonian king, and pre- 
ceded Cyrus, seems not to exist for the in- 
scriptions* Now here is a historical problem 
of the first order. It needs no amplification. 
The issue is clear. I do not know what 
adequate solution can be now offered for 
the difficulty. That there is some solution, 
under which the Bible will suffer no dam- 
age, I feel sure, but who can now tell us 
what it is \ 1 This is a specimen of a com- 
paratively small, but extremely grave class 
of problems, which it is not honest, nor 
wise, for Bible students to put wholly out 
of sight, when they call Assyriology to 
their aid in interpreting the Scriptures. 

1 A current answer affirms the legendary character of 
the book of Daniel. But this is not enough. The 
origin of the legend is still to be explained. 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 39 

No one of these questions endangers the 
divine truth. That has its own basis, 
immovable and sure. And no one of them 
need endanger our repose upon the divine 
truth, or give us anxiety or distress of 
mind. Peace of heart, security for the 
truth and in the truth, belong, in God's 
ordering, to the courageous, reverent, and 
loyal inquirer, who welcomes all knowl- 
edge that God sends him. 

II. It might seem wise in me to detain 
you a much shorter time with the uses 
of Assyriology in Old Testament study, 
not because this branch of the subject 
is less important than the other, but be- 
cause it is, at least in the general aspects 
of it, more familiar. And yet I trust that 
some fulness of illustration may not come 
amiss. For, if the cautions already sug- 
gested are kept in mind, we are not likely 
to exaggerate the advantages which As- 



40 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AKD ABUSE 

syriology offers to the student of the Bi- 
ble. They are very great. 

(1.) In the first place, Assyriology has 
given to the ancient Hebrew literature 
and life a new setting. Whenever we 
learn to know a people in its racial con- 
nections, then we are beginning to know 
it, then it begins to take its rightful 
place among the peoples of the earth, 
then the fibres of human sympathy begin 
to reach out on this side and that, there 
are points of contact, there are lines of 
interest ; we can estimate its whole 
character more wisely when we learn, 
even imperfectly, its genesis and its re- 
lationships; what it has accomplished in 
the world takes on a new aspect, either 
by resemblance or by contrast, when put 
by the side of the doings of its sister 
people ; the forms of its thought become 
more intelligible, or more striking ; the 
quality of its literature receives some 






m OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 41 

explanation, and the external features of 
that literatnre cease to be solitary and 
strange to us ; the people and all that 
belongs to it come more fully into our 
world, and range themselves alongside 
of us and our neighbors and our ances- 
tors, and take on a familiarity which is 
yet new and fresh, and full of meaning. 
It is a distinct and great advantage, when, 
without any lowering of its unique claims, 
or any diminution of the special charac- 
teristics imparted to it by the divine 
agency in its production, the volume of 
sacred writings, before whose authority 
we bow, associates itself more intimately, 
on its human side, with the history of 
mankind at large. 

Nothing has done so much to establish 
these connections as the inscriptions of 
Babylonia and Assyria. It is true we 
have had other Shemitic literatures — ■ 
Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Rabbinic — 



42 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE ASD ABUSE 

bat all of them too late, and much of 
their product too artificial to illumine the 
ancient Hebrew times with the living 
light, to throw about them the brilliant 
atmosphere, which records contemporary 
with them could do. But within the last 
thirty years there has been coming more 
and more plainly into view the back- 
ground from which the Old Testament 
stands out in a definition of increasing 
sharpness, and yet with such gradations 
of light and shade, such lines running 
from the foreground back into the recesses 
of the picture, as to give unity to the 
whole, and convince us that foreground 
and background, in a subtle way, belong 
together. We begin to perceive what 
the Shemitic race was, in its power and 
its weakness, its early vigor and its en- 
during tenacity, its versatility and its 
depth, its religious fervor and its prac- 
tical coolness and shrewdness, its capacity 



■ 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 43 

for poetic emotion and its literary skill, 
its creative attempts at realistic and sym- 
bolic art, and its daring plans for archi- 
tectural triumphs ; on the other hand, its 
cruel and selfish warrings, its pitiless op- 
pressions, its internecine strifes, its arbi- 
trary despotisms, its extravagance and 
vanity, and its foul idolatries ; we find 
the germs of impulses and movements 
that worked ruin to the Hebrews, at the 
last, through the hand of their own kin- 
dred peoples, and we find new cause to 
wonder at the divine power which could 
yet make of Israel a chosen nation. This 
in general, and many details beside. The 
very Genesis tablets, which raise such 
hard questions, by their form and by their 
subject-matter testify of a close and vital 
union, in some tap-root, of the civiliza- 
tion of the Jordan with that of the Eu- 
phrates ; the hundred mutual explanations 
of annals and chronicles, from the banks 



44 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

of the Tigris and from the hill that over- 
looks the valley of Kedron knit the 
Hebrew history into the world's history, 
and convince us that in our Old Testa- 
ments we have to do with men, with 
human passions and schemes and hopes 
and struggles, inward and outward. 

This is not a matter of slight conse- 
quence — a mere dilettante interest. It may 
serve not only to increase our own care 
for the Old Testament, by making it 
vivid, not only to diminish to some degree 
that unhappy racial prejudice, which in 
late years has been reviving in different 
parts of the world — not unprovoked in 
particular cases, but utterly unworthy of 
those who, by God's grace, through faith 
have become children of Abraham, and 
heirs according to the promise — but also 
to bridge over that chasm, which some- 
times seems hopelessly widening, between 
all that relates to Bible truth and the im- 



— » , JMffi- . -T . T-" 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 45 

mense energies put forth by men of taste 
and of scientific habit, in the pursuit of 
those branches of human knowledge to 
which their inclinations lead them. It is 
a vast gain when a great system of facts 
that belongs inseparably to our religion, so 
thrusts itself in the path of explorers who 
do not care for our religion, that they 
cannot ignore them or sport with them, 
but are forced to regard them as one of 
the serious elements in the history and life 
of men. 

(2.) Another way in which Assyriology 
is of use to the Old-Testament student is 
this : it brings into clear light the essential 
difference between the Hebrews and other 
ancient peoples. To lay more stress on 
formal agreement than on essential differ- 
ence might have been named among the 
abuses of Assyriology ; but Assyriology 
itself, to the clear-eyed Christian schol- 
ar, works directly against this abuse. 



46 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

Whether there are agreements or dis- 
agreements in form between old Hebrew 
and old Babylonian documents, and what 
these agreements or disagreements signify, 
is a deeply interesting inquiry. But it is, 
after all, of secondary consequence. It is 
a great mistake to stop with these exter- 
nal relationships. The thing which every 
earnest Bible scholar is most concerned for 
is that root-element which distinguishes 
the Hebrew people from all other ancient 
peoples, and the Hebrew writings from all 
other ancient literatures. The one great 
distinctive feature of the literary monu- 
ments of the Hebrews is that they were 
informed by a spirit to which the inscrip- 
tions of Nineveh and Babylon are utter 
strangers. There is a truth of spiritual 
conception, a loftiness of spiritual tone, a 
conviction of unseen realities, a confident 
reliance upon an invisible but all-control- 
ling power, a humble worship in the pres- 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 47 

ence of the supreme majesty, a peace in 
union and communion with the one and 
only God, and the vigorous germs of an 
ethics reflecting his will, which make an 
infinite gap between the Hebrew and his 
brother Shemite " beyond the river," that 
all likeness of literary form does not begin 
to span. I do not mean to contradict 
what I have already implied, and deny that 
there was genuine religious feeling in the 
valleys of the great Asiatic rivers. In Bab- 
ylonia, at least, we know that there were 
unquenched desires of the spirit, bitter 
consciousness of sin, and longing for its for- 
giveness, humble prostration before the un- 
seen Deity, vague conceptions of his right- 
eous demands, and longings for alliance 
with him, on the part of those who pain- 
fully exercised their souls — "if haply they 
might feel after him and find him." Nor 
do I doubt that those desires and vague 
gropings of the mind were truly heaven- 



48 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

sent. But they were exceptional, and 
they were sadly ineffective. Go back 
once more to the poems of creation, as the 
cuneiform tablet and the first chapter of 
Genesis present them ; there are formal re- 
semblances, but these cannot offset, for 
a moment, the fundamental difference. 
Compare the polytheism of the Babylo- 
nian myth, its inarticulate pantheism, its 
confounding of the gods with the world, 
its emanation — all things, gods included, 
born from the womb of Chaos — with 
the distinct, unhesitating, unobscured mon- 
otheism of Genesis, struck out sharply 
and unmistakably in the first majestic 
line, " In the beginning of God's creating 
the heavens and the earth." Men say, Oh, 
of course, the Hebrews had a purer concep- 
tion of God. But the point is that this is 
the essential matter; this is what we care 
about. No doubt it has been recognized 
and emphasized before, but we have never 



— -— 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 49 

before had the opportunity of seeing so 
plainly what it would be to have this 
commanding and determining element left 
out — from even one page — of the Old Tes- 
tament. 

The formal, external resemblance — even 
the correspondence in subject-matter — 
make this vital distinction so obvious as 
to insist on recognition. And I am per- 
suaded that, at least as far as the early 
narratives of Genesis are concerned, Chris- 
tian scholars will come more and more to 
the position that it is not the features of 
likeness to the Genesis tablets of Baby- 
lonia that support the unique character of 
the Bible so much as the absolute and ap- 
palling ^likeness in the spiritual concep- 
tions and temper by which they are in- 
fused. 

(3.) But, in thinking of the uses of As- 
syriology in Old Testament study, our 
minds turn most readily, no doubt, to the 



50 ASSYE10LOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

positive historical confirmations and ex- 
planations which have been awakened by 
the blow of the excavator's j)ick, and risen 
up before us out of the ground. And in 
this aspect of it Assyriology is a mine of 
wealth. It proves, speaking broadly, and 
leaving out of account for the time the 
occasional difficulties which it presents, 
that araong the nations of antiquity, 
whose literary remains have come down 
to us, the Hebrews were the only out- 
siders who really knew much about the 
great Asiatic empires. The stamp of hon- 
esty and competency is thus put upon 
their historical documents, if they needed 
it. The Egyptians were too far away, 
and came too seldom into any relations 
with Babylon and Nineveh, to be of first- 
rate value as witnesses to their deeds. 
The Greeks told fairy-tales that enter- 
tained their readers, but were largely un- 
true. The Hebrews, with their nearer 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 51 

position, and more frequent and memo- 
rable contact, had also a conscientious- 
ness and skill in annalistic writing which 
make their evidence in regard to the his- 
tory of their neighbors important and 
trustworthy, though, of course, discon- 
nected. The inscriptions which show us 
this, give us thereby a new ground of con- 
fidence in Hebrew history as a whole. 

It is here impossible to give even the 
barest enumeration of the Biblical in- 
cidents and events to which Assyriology 
bears its testimony. They begin very 
early in the sacred volume. Passing out 
of the realm of the legendary " Genesis 
tablets," we know — or think we know ; it 
is in the highest degree probable, if not 
yet demonstrated — where Abraham's TJr 
Kasdim stood, and dig up bricks there that 
must have been inscribed before ever 
Terah had a son. It was the fashion 
among a certain school of critics, not very 



52 ASSTRIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

many years ago, to prove, and prove 
ao'ain, the unhistorical character of Gen. 
xiv. — the Elamite campaign into Canaan. 1 
Wise exegetes are not doing this now. 
There is too much light out of the East, 
The sun has risen too high. Ahab 
and Jehu, and the league of Syrian 
kino-s against Shalmaneser II., Tisdath- 
pileser and Ahaz against Pekak and 
Rezin, these combinations are familiar 
now to Bible-readers. The Sar^on whose 
name was preserved to us only in a single 
verse of Isaiah (xx. 1) has grown into a 
figure that almost fills the sta^e of West- 
ern Asia for sixteen eventful years ; Sen- 
nacherib and Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar 
and Evil Merodach, Cyrus and the great 
Darius Hystaspis, and many kings be- 
side — the wedge-shaped characters tell us 
of them all. A selection from the great 

l E.g., Xoldeke : Untersuchungen zur Kritik cles Al- 
ien Testaments, 1869. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 53 

mass of materials at hand may serve to 
recall to your minds some characteristics 
of this new testimony which make it in- 
dispensable to the student of Biblical his- 
tory. It will be more profitable to con- 
fine ourselves to those cuneiform records 
which give explanations of obscure points 
in the Old-Testament narratives, rather 
than to devote any part of our limited 
time to the more simple and obvious con- 
firmations. 

Look, then, for the first illustration, at 
the period when Ahab was involved in 
hostilities with Benhadad II. of Damas- 
cus (1 Kings xx., xxii.). This Benhadad 
was son (xx. 34) of a monarch of the same 
name who, at the call of Asa of Judah, had 
wantonly broken the peace existing between 
Baasha of Israel and himself, seized upon 
cities of the northern kingdom, and held 
them by no other title than that of might 
(ch. xv.). The son,, not contented with the 



54 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

possession of that which his father had 
secured, marched against Samaria with a 
large force, and made the most insulting 
and humiliating demands. In the battle 
that ensued he was defeated, but himself 
escaped. The following year he returned, 
was again defeated, and this time came 
into the power of Ahab. The latter, how- 
ever, instead of visiting upon the head of 
the captive the injuries and insults Israel 
had received from him and his house, 
welcomed him as a brother, and dismissed 
him on the easy terms of a restoration of the 
cities taken by his father, and the freedom 
of the city of Damascus for himself (ch. 
xx.). We can understand perfectly well 
how the prophet, for whom Benhadad was 
an enemy of God as well as of Israel, should 
have been indignant at this motiveless 
clemency (vv. 35 sq.). But the difficult 
thing is to understand how Ahab could 
have been willing to exercise it, and how it 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 55 

came about that he was able to secure an 
acquiescence of his army in it. The ex- 
planations which used to be attempted 
ignored the latter point, and met the 
former lamely enough. To attribute this 
neglect of a capital opportunity for re- 
venge, and for a vast extension of his own 
power to Ahab's good nature, and to his 
" joy at knowing that a crowned head, of 
equal rank with himself, is still living," * 
assumes in Ahab such idealistic views of 
life that it might have been difficult for 
Elijah and Naboth and Mesha, King of 
Moab, to appreciate this theory. If any 
one should cite v. 31 ("we have heard 
that the kings of Israel are merciful 
kings ") in confirmation of this view, he 
would need to be reminded that these 
words are put into the mouth of the ser- 
vants of Benhadad at a critical emergency, 

^lienius: Die Biicher der Konige, 2d ed., p. 243. 
Leipzig, 1873. 



56 ASSYEIOLOGY ; ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

when everything depended on saving their 
master from despair, and not truth, but 
immediate and decisive effect would be 
their chief aim ; and besides this, that if 
the words really correspond to the facts, 
then they must apply not only to Ahab, 
but also to Omri and Zimri and Elah and 
Baasha and the rest, which makes rather 
a severe strain upon our credulity. The 
explanation of Ewald 1 is little better, viz , 
that Ahab was nattered by the humble 
entreaty of his vanquished rival. Such 
a view would lead us to ask whether it 
would be likely that a ruler who could so 
easily be carried away by vanity as utterly 
to disregard his own interests, forget old 
scores, and cast away prudent forethought 
— even if he might be conceived as re- 
straining his desire of conquest — whether 
it would be likely that such a ruler would 

1 History of Israel, Eng. Trans., vol. iv., p. 73. Lon- 
don, 1871. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 57 

maintain himself on the throne, amid all 
the turbulence and the scheming of the 
time, for twenty-two years, as Ahab 
did. This suggests again the difficulty 
of making the army calmly acquiesce in 
such leniency. The army would be full 
of irritation and of eagerness to reap 
the fruits of victory. The government 
was a military despotism, in which the 
soldier might raise his hand against the 
despot. It was because the army sup- 
ported him that Omri had gained the 
throne (ch. xvi. 16 sq.). It was the army 
that afterward enabled Jehu to carry 
out his usurpation (2 Kings ix. 13 sq.), 
just as it was doubtless the army of 
the southern kingdom that brought 
about the death of Amaziah of Judah, 
and the establishment of Azariah in 
his stead (2 Kings xvi. 19 sq.). The 
army was a factor that must be reck- 
oned with, and Ahab's army was not 



f)8 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

likely to be gentle because Ahab was 
flattered or was amiably disposed. 

Further, to crown the whole, we find, 
some three years later, that Benhadad had 
not given up the important city of Raruoth 
Gilead, and that Ahab expressly, and of his 
own motion, invited Jehoshaphat of Juclah 
to make with him the campaign against 
Aram that cost the Israelitish king his life, 
and all to secure what the most crude diplo- 
macy might have gained three years before. 

The inscriptions of Shalmaneser II. of 
Assyria give us a key to the riddle. This 
king reigned B.C. 860-825, and came more 
than once into contact with the peoples 
west of the Euphrates. "In the eponymate 
of Dayan Asshur," he tells us, he crossed 
the Euphrates and attacked and conquered, 
at Karkar, an army under Benhadad and 
his allies ; among the latter was " Ahab of 
Israel." x Now Dayan Asshur was epo- 

1 See Records of the Past, vol. iii., pp. 98, 99. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 59 

nym, B.C. 854. In that year, then, Ahab 
was in league with Benhadacl. But we 
may infer from another inscription of Shal- 
maneser II., that Ahab met his death not 
later than B.C. 853. For he was succeeded 
by his son Ahaziah, who reigned two years 
(xxii. 51), and he, by his brother Jehoram, 
who reigned twelve years (2 Ki. iii. 1), 
after which he was murdered by Jehu (2 
Ki. ix. 24). Now Shalmaneser reports 
that he received tribute from Jehu, B.C. 
842. Jehoram must therefore have been 
dead in 842, and what with his twelve 
years, and Ahaziah's two, even allowing 
for partial years reckoned as whole ones 
(cf. 1 Ki. xx. 51, with 2 Ki. iii. 1), 
Ahaziah cannot have come to the throne 
later than B.C. 853. Taking this for the 
year of Ahab's death, the peace with 
Benhadad, which was three years earlier, 
of course preceded the victory of Shal- 
maneser at Karkar in 854. Thus we 



60 ASSYRIOLOGY I ITS USE AND ABUSE 

have the following simple historical com- 
bination : the peoples of Aram and of 
Irsael had not merely themselves to think 
of ; they were not left to settle their 
affairs alone. The power of Assyria had 
become an important element in their cal- 
culations. It must evidently have been 
threatening the West as early as 855 or 
856. But Benhadad' s territory lay nearer 
to Assyria than Ahab's did. Therefore 
two things followed : First, that however 
completely Ahab might have subdued 
Benhadad, the latter's dominion was not 
at the time a desirable piece of property ; 
it was quite too much exposed. Secondly, 
that it was clearly for Ahab's interest 
to refrain from crippling Benhadad so 
thoroughly that he could not make a 
vigorous resistance to Shalmaneser. It 
seemed far better for Israel that the li^ht- 
ing with Assyria, if there was to be any, 
should be on Aramaean (Syrian) ground. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 61 

Therefore Ahab let Benhadad ofE on easy 
terms. The motive was one which wonld 
satisfy — not God's prophet, indeed, bnt 
— himself, and his soldiers, who knew 
the strength of Assyria, and would have 
no fancy for an Assyrian force in their 
land. When, after a year, or more, Shal- 
maneser actually came across the Euphra- 
tes, and Beuhadad was forced to bear 
the brunt of the fight with him, Ahab 
of course could not refuse to send a con- 
tingent of men to his assistance. Other 
princes did the same. The battle at 
Karkar was lost, and the league natu- 
rally fell apart. The next year, Ahab, 
with no friendly feelings toward Ben- 
hadad, who, in addition to previous insults 
and injuries, had led the allied forces to 
defeat, took advantage of a respite from 
Assyrian menaces, and of the probability 
that the unfortunate campaign of 854 
would have weakened Benhadad and lost 



62 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

him other allies, and joined with the 
King of Judah to make his fatal expedi- 
tion against Eamoth-gilead. This is a 
rational, and probable, reconstruction of 
the story of those years, in the light of 
cuneiform decipherment. It does not 
appear that the author of the Books of 
Kings took account of all this ; perhaps 
he did not know it all It is, of course, 
not our object to prove the omniscience 
of a writer, but only to show what an 
explanation of obscure points in his writ- 
ing is afforded by the records of Assyria. 

As a case of a different sort, let us 
look at the argument, already referred 
to, 1 for the identity of "Pul, the King 
of Assyria" with Tiglath Pileser II. (2 
Kings xv. 19, 29; 1 Chron. v. 26). In 
the passages here referred to no intimation 
is given that the two names belong to 
one and the same person. Yet the proof 
1 See above, p. 27. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 63 

to this effect is conclusive. And here, 
again, I must ask pardon if I give too 
much of dry detail. The topic is very 
important, not only for the understand- 
ing of these brief notices, but for the 
whole subject of Old Testament chronol- 
ogy. The true state of the case appears, 
negatively, from the absence, in the un- 
broken line of Assyrian rulers, of the 
name Pul, as either predecessor, co-regent, 
or successor of Tiglath Pileser, or as an 
ally, a rival, or a tributary prince. It 
has been argued, positively, from the 
following considerations : 

(a.) Men ahem, King of Israel, is named 
by Tiglath Pileser II. in an inscription, as 
tributary to himself. Now we learn from 
2 Kings xv. 19, that Menahem bought 
the favor of Pul by the gift of a thousand 
talents of silver, which, of course, was 
nothing more nor less than a tribute. 
The silence of Assyrian inscriptions of 



64 ASSYKI0L0GY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

this period about any Pul, gives the oppor- 
tunity for supposing, with no great vio- 
lence, that the King to whom the Bible 
declares Menahem to have been tributary 
was the same with the King whom the 
inscriptions name in a like connection. 
Those who invent a break in the Eponyni 
Canon 1 put the Menahem of the Bible 
earlier than Tiglath Pileser II., in order 
to keep him contemporary with Pul ; then 
they go further and invent another Mena- 
hem, unknown to the Bible, to pay tribute 
to Tiglath Pileser and thus satisfy the in- 
scriptions. The weight of these two un- 
supported hypotheses is increased when 
we remember that it is the Biblical Mena- 
hem who is contemporary with Azariah, 
King of Judah, and that this Azariah, 
also, is mentioned in the inscriptions of 
Tiglath Pileser II. 

(b.) But the decisive evidence comes 

1 See above, p. 26. 



IK OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 65 

from another quarter. Eusebius * jDreserves 
some fragments of an historical work by 
one Alexander Polyhistor, in the course of 
which it is reported, on the authority of 
Berossus, a Babylonian priest of about 
the third century B.C., that a " King of 
the Chaldseans," reigning before Senna- 
cherib, bore the name JPhulus. " He,'' 
Eusebius adds, " is said to have invaded 
Judaea." Now, even if this were all, when 
we find Ptolemy, the astronomer and ge- 
ographer, who lived in the second century 
a.d., giving, in his list of Babylonian kings, 
based upon ancient records, the names of 
Chinziros and Poros as kings of Babylon 
in the year B.C. 731, and remember how 
easily r and I interchange in the passage of 
words from language to language, we 
should not be disinclined to connect this 
Poros with the PJiulus mentioned in Euse- 
bius. 

1 Ckron., I. 4. 



66 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

But this is in Babylonia, not Assyria, 
you will say. True, and yet it happens 
that from the Assyrian inscriptions we 
know a good deal of what was going on 
in Babylonia at just this time. Tiglath 
Pileser II. was King of Assyria B.C. 745- 
727, but he takes pains to inform us that 
he extended his power over Babylonia as 
well; he marched thither more than once, 
and describes these campaigns at length ; 
they were so successful that he even calls 
himself " King of Shumir and Akkad," i.e., 
Southern and Northern Babylonia; more 
than this, he records that there submitted 
to him, in this very year 731, a king of 
Babylonia, by the name of Ukinzir, — -the 
name that precedes Poros in Ptolemy's 
list. To complete the argument it must be 
added that Tiglath Pileser died in b.c. 727, 
and that the first year of -Poros 1 successor 
in Babylon is given in Ptolemy's list as 726. 

It was, therefore, a reasonable inference 



IK OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 67 

which Professor Schrader * and others drew 
— that Poros (=.Phulus=Pul) is simply 
another name for Tiglath Pileser II. And 
if this was his name in Babylon, no scholar 
wonld doubt that it might be his name in 
Israel as well. 

Such was the argument up to 1884, and 
I have taken pains to give it at some length, 
to show how it has anticipated the most 
recent decipherments, 2 which furnish a brill- 
iant confirmation of it, and settle the whole 
question. Not only has a cuneiform list of 
Babylonian kings been discovered, running 
parallel in part with the list of Ptolemy, 
showing its accuracy, and, in particular, 
exhibiting the names of Ukinzir and Pulu 
as successive Babylonian kings, during the 

1 Keilinscliriften u. d. Alte Testament, 2d ed., Giessen, 
1883, pp. 224-227 sq. The argument is given more fully 
by the same author : Keilinscliriften u. Geschichtsfor- 
schung, Giessen, 1878, pp. 422 sq. 

2 Theoph. G. Pinches, in Proceedings of Soc. of BibL 
Archseol., Mav, 1884. 



68 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

years B.C. 732-727 ; but a Babylonian chron- 
icle, dealing with this period, is found to 
substitute Tiglath Pileser for Pulu. Prob- 
ably no one will again venture to say that 
they are not one and the same. It is prob- 
able that Put was his private, Tiglath 
Pileser his royal name (he seems not to 
have been of royal birth) ; but however 
that may prove, the history of the dis- 
cussion shows us once more the value of 
historic insight, and the danger of allowing 
over-anxiety for the truth to force its de- 
fenders into a position from which advan- 
cing knowledge may drive them any day. 

For our intelligent reading of 2 Kings 
xv., this identification is a distinct gain. 
It does also involve, it is true, a modifica- 
tion of the received dates of the Boohs of 
Kings, according to which both Menahem 
and Azariah were dead before Tiglath Pi- 
leser came to the throne, in b.c. 745. But 
this, too, is a great gain. It helps us to 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 69 

see that the dates are corrupt, and gives us 
certain fixed points which will aid in re- 
storing them to something like accuracy. 
I do not intend, however, to burden you 
with more figures, and beg you now to pass 
on to our final group of illustrations. 

We noticed, a little while ago, 1 that the 
new Cyrus inscriptions ofTer a troublesome 
problem to the defender of the historical 
accuracy of the book of Daniel, by ignoring 
"Darius the Median." But they give us, on 
the other hand, invaluable guidance in the 
interpretation of some other parts of the 
Old Testament. I refer now, in particular, 
to the edicts of Cyrus found in the Book 
of Ezra, and the prophecies of Isaiah and 
Jeremiah, which have to do with the return 
of the Jews to Jerusalem, from their exile 
in Babylon. It should be said, at once, 
that the two inscriptions with which we 
are here concerned, do not allude to the 

1 See above, p. 37. 



70 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AKD ABUSE 

Jews and their restoration. But the fact 
of the restoration no one can question. 
The inquiry would be as to the motive of 
Cyrus and the manner of his personal 
agency in bringing it about. 

It used to be thought— and this was very 
natural — that Cyrus, a Persian, with the 
monotheism of Zarathustra in his heart, 
was showing especial favor to the monothe- 
istic religion of the Jews. The proclama- 
tions recorded in Ezra i. 2-4 and vi. 3-5, 
were supposed to have marks of particular 
and lavish generosity on the part of a wor- 
shipper of the one Ahuramazda, toward 
the worshippers of the one Jehovah, whom 
he might easily regard as Ahuramazda 
under another name. 1 That the people 
were summoned to make contributions for 
the rebuilding of the temple (i. 4) was no 
more surprising than that the king's own 

1 See, e.g., Stanley, Hist, of Jewish Church, vol. iii., p. 
75, new ed., New York, 1884. 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 71 

treasury should be drawn upon for the 
same purpose (vi. 4). It has even been 
held that the Hebrew monotheism itself 
received a powerful impulse from contact 
with that which, under Cyrus, pervaded 
the empire. 1 

Such theories, however attractive, are 
not borne out by the new discoveries. 
For these bring; us face to face with the 
fact that idolatrous worships were treated 
by Cyrus with like consideration. Not 
only do the inscriptions tell' us that he re- 
paired the shrine of Merodach, which 
Nabonidus, the deposed Babylonian king, 
had neglected, and that he restored to 
their places the " gods of Shumir and 
Akkacl, 1 ' i.e., favored the local idolatries 
of the various parts of Babylonia ; but we 
learn from them that, on receiving the 
tribute of all the conquered territories 
which had learned to recognize the su- 

ild. Ib., p. 162 sq. 



72 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

preraacy of Babylon, he reinstated the gods 
of these several lands, and assigned to 
them " enduring seats." We see, there- 
fore, that the graciousness toward the re- 
ligion of a conquered people, and the lib- 
eral expenditure in its behalf illustrated in 
his treatment of the ; Jews, was not pecul- 
iar, but was part of a settled habit, ac- 
cording to which he treated the deities of 
subject peoples with respect, and even with 
honor. 

We reach a similar result when Ave con- 
sider, in the light of recent decipherments, 
the remarkable expressions with regard 
to Jehovah which the sacred historian 
puts into Cyrus' mouth : " Jehovah, God 
of heaven, hath given me all the king- 
doms of the earth ; and he hath charged 
me to build him an house at Jerusalem" 
(Ezra i. 2). As already hinted, a prevail- 
ing opinion has been, not that Cyrus gave 
up his own religion, but that he found 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 73 

such an agreement between the Hebrew 
religion and his own, that the God of the 
Hebrews seemed to him in substance iden- 
tical with his god. It has, then, been 
quite commonly held that the name 
" Jehovah " was not used by him in the 
original proclamation, of which Ezra i. 2-4 
is a rescript, but that the sentiment to- 
ward Jehovah there expressed was his 
own genuine feeling toward Ahuramazda, 
whom he recognized under the Hebrew 
name. 1 We now have ground for exactly 
reversing this. It is quite likely that he 
used the name "Jehovah," but appears 
certain that what he said of Jehovah had 
much less spiritual significance than has 
been supposed. One of the Cyrus inscrip- 
tions (the cylinder) contains similar ex- 
pressions in regard to Merodach, the tute- 
lary god of Babylon. Cyrus calls Mero- 
dach " the great lord," and " my lord.' 5 

Stanley, loc. cit., pp. 74, 75. 



74 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AND ABUSE 

It was " by the command of Merodach, the 
great lord," he tells us, that he reinstated 
the gods of Shumir and Akkad. It was 
Merodach that " chose a king to conduct, 
after his own heart, what he committed to 
his hand — Cyrus, King of Ansan." It 
was " Merodach, the great lord," who di- 
rected Cyrus' march ; " to his city of Bab- 
ylon his course he summoned, and caused 
him to take the road to Tintir (Babylon)." 
It will not be claimed that this attitude 
toward Merodach excludes the possibility 
of a similar attitude toward Jehovah. 
On the contrary, if he thus speaks of the 
tntelary god of the conquered Babylon, 
it is all the more likely that he should, 
when concerned with another subject-na- 
tion, speak of their Jehovah in the same 
terms. But there would be as little of 
exclusive recognition and worship in the 
one case as in the other. 

With this in mind we may glance at the 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 75 

prophecies which foretold the agency of 
Cyrus in overthrowing Babylonian tyr- 
anny, and restoring the Hebrews. It is 
not at all surprising that, when they 
looked into the future, and discerned the 
work of Cyrus, the prophets should have 
regarded him as an agent of God, even as 
one especially chosen and anointed (Id., 
xlv. 1). The priests of Merodach looked 
toward Cyrus as a deliverer ; much more 
naturally would the Hebrews be inclined 
to welcome him, and to see the hand of 
their God in his victory, since the conquest 
which involved a foreign dominion for the 
Babylonians, meant freedom for them. 
The Old-Testament predictions which sim- 
ply announce his coming to deliver the 
Hebrews, and punish their enemies, even 
those which especially declare that God 
had raised him up, do not, therefore, re- 
quire particular comment. These predic- 
tions were fulfilled. 



76 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

But it is manifest that the significance 
of a prediction like that of Isaiah xlv. 1-5 
must appear in a new light. That part of 
this prediction which represents Cyrus as 
ignorant that Jehovah was using him for 
his own purposes does not now need expla- 
nation. But when we come upon this ex- 
pression: "that thou mayst know that I 
am Jehovah, which call thee by thy name, 
the God of Israel" (verse 3), or this 
other, in some respects more noteworthy 
still (xli. 25) : "from the rising of the sun 
shall he call upon (or proclaim) my name," 
the case is altered. Even the most recent 
commentator 1 does not hesitate to under- 
stand this as referring to a subjective 
change in Cyrus. " It is evidently," he 
says, " a prediction of a spiritual change to 
be wrought in Cyrus in consequence of his 
wonderful career." But is it admissible, 

1 T. K. Cheyne : Comm. on Isaiah, 3d ed., London, 
1834 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 77 

in view of what we have already seen, to 
hold that the predictions were fulfilled in 
this sense ? At all events, not so as to un- 
derstand what we should mean by a " con- 
version " to Jehovah. We must consider 
the possibilities with some care. If we 
could be sure that Cyrus w r as at heart a 
follower of Zarathustra, we might indeed 
believe that some monotheistic zeal, con- 
trolled as to outward expression by the 
supposed needs of statesmanship, entered 
into his feeling toward Jehovah. But no 
inscription of his, yet found, breathes 
monotheism. Darius Hystaspis appears 
to us in his cuneiform monuments as a zeal- 
ous worshipper of Ahuramazda, but not 
so Cyrus. We must, therefore, for the 
present, reason from the postulate that 
Cyrus was not a Zarathustrian at all. 
Such impartiality of respect to different 
deities as we observe in him might then 
be due to one of two causes. It might be 



78 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE A3T> ABUSE 

that lie shared the belief of his time with 
regard to the local power of various 
divinities. He might really suppose that, 
since Merodach was god of Babylon, his 
firm possession of Babylon depended upon 
Merodach's favor, and that since Jehovah 
was god of the land of Israel, he must 
pay due respect to him in order to retain 
Israel under his control. In that case a 
real recognition of Jehovah, and a real 
proclamation of him as a deity would be 
involved, and we should have a distinct, 
though it might seem a meagre, fulfilment 
of the prediction. On the other hand, it 
might be that the religious professions of 
Cyrus were wholly at the service of his 
imperial policy. He might desire to 
secure the favor of the priests and people 
of Babylon by honoring their deity — ■ 
avoiding the mistake of Xabonidus the 
vanquished king, who seems to have neg- 
lected that deity. In like manner, he 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. id 

might aim, by active interest for Jehovah's 
name and temple, simply to secure the favor 
of another people and another priesthood, 
whom his policy led him to restore to their 
home on an important frontier of his em- 
pire. His religiousness would then be 
assumed, and the whole design of it would 
be to secure a more prompt recognition 
of his own sovereignty, and a more en- 
tire submission to his political measures. 
On this view, the prophecies would take 
on a different meaning. We could under- 
stand the one as carried out in the fact 
that Cyrus' deeds resulted, without his 
distinct purpose, in " proclaiming " the 
name of Jehovah, because Jehovah's people 
was set free and his worship re-established. 
We could understand the " that thoumayst 
know" of Is. xlv. 3, as indicating the gra- 
cious design of God, which might have 
been accomplished if Cyrus had given in 
his allegiance. Which of these lines of in- 



80 ASSYRIOLOGY : ITS USE AKD ABUSE 

terpretation is to be preferred, or whether 
there is some other still, need not here be 
determined. Enough has been said to show 
that the inscriptions give us a set of well- 
attested facts, which have their part to 
play, and must unquestionably assist in 
bringing about a future and better under- 
standing of the scope of prophetic words. 

I am quite aware that many persons 
would not regard it an advantage to find 
the fulfilment of these prophecies in a much 
less significant experience on the part of 
Cyrus than they had been accustomed to 
picture to themselves. But we must never 
forget that to have our particular interpre- 
tations confirmed is not the object for 
which we are to study the Bible. It is to 
get at the truth that is in the Bible. If 
our interpretation has been in any respect 
wrong, then it is a great advantage to have 
the means put into our hand of bringing it 
nearer the truth. Neither Assyriology nor 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 81 

any other science may be forced into the 
service of prejudice. 

In this connection we may inquire also 
how far the fate of Babylon and of its dei- 
ties corresponds with the predictions con- 
cernino: these. The seer declares that 
" Babylon is fallen, is fallen ; and all the 
graven images of her gods he hath broken 
unto the ground " (Is. xxi. 9) ; " Bel 
boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols 
were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle " 
(xlvi. 1) ; " Babylon is taken, Bel is con- 
founded, Merodach is broken in pieces; 
her idols are confounded, her images are 
broken in pieces" (Jer. 1. 2). The de- 
struction of Babylon is to be utter : " Baby- 
lon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place 
for dragons, an astonishment and a hiss- 
ing without an inhabitant " (li. 37). That 
these and like declarations became facts in 
the course of the centuries we have not 
needed cuneiform inscriptions to tell us. 

6 



82 assyeiology: its use axd abuse 

But it is worth noticing that in that aspect 
of the case with which the prophets would 
be most immediately concerned, their pre- 
dictions were fulfilled under Cyrus, al- 
though — as, indeed, we knew before — he 
did not destroy Babylon and although he 
did not abolish idolatry. For not only 
was his conquest a real humiliation of the 
Babylonian people, but also — and this 
would be of prime interest to the prophets 
— it put a stop to the deportation policy 
of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, and 
secured a kind of national life — modest and 
dependent, it is true — to the exiled He- 
brews. The Babylonian oppression and 
captivity came to an end with Cyrus. In 
the case of the idols, the matter is perhaps 
even more obvious. We should hardly, I 
think, satisfy ourselves with the sugges- 
tions 1 which have been made, to the effect 

1 Of. Canon George Rawlinson, Contemp. Review, Jan., 
1880, pp, 96 sq. 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 83 

that, during the capture of the city of 
Babylon, actual breakages of idols might 
naturally occur, and that, further, the con- 
quest of Cyrus brought about a change in 
the relative position of religions, Baby- 
lonian and other Shemitic idolatry going 
down, and Zarathustrianism coming up. 
For Cyrus' army entered Babylon without 
resistance, and even if the last stronghold 
had to be subdued by force, such a break- 
ing of images as might have taken place 
would be a meagre fulfilment of the 
prophecy. Its most literal meaning can 
hardly have been met by the casual shat- 
tering of a few idols, to be followed by an 
honorable re-establishment and worship, 
such as Cyrus brought about for the Baby- 
lonian gods. And it was not a mere vic- 
torious monotheism that the prophets saw 
in Cyrus' conquest. It was deliverance for 
God's people, and a step onward toward 
the triumph of God's kingdom, which they 



84 ASSYRIOLOGY ! ITS USE AND ABUSE 

welcomed in it. The conflict, as they viewed 
it, was between religions, no doubt, but 
this in no abstract way. Its result should 
be to punish the oppressors of Jehovah's 
worshippers. The gods of Babylon should 
be shown up in their utter powerlessness 
to protect those oppressors. That in this 
essential meaning of the predictions their 
fulfilment came with Cyrus' victory is plain 
enough ; the royal line which had wrought 
such harm to the Hebrew people, and so 
defied their Almighty Grod and King, was 
overthrown. Their idols did not save 
them. It is then as a real and specific 
accomplishment of what Jehovah's pro- 
phets had announced that we may read 
the words of Cyrus himself : " The an- 
cient, royal family, of which Bel and Nebo 
had sustained the rule, .... faded 
away when I entered victoriously into 
Tintir." 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 85 

No one can be more fully aware than I 
am myself how inadequate a notion such 
a brief review, with illustrations selected 
almost at random, must give of the worth 
of Assyriology to the student of the Old 
Testament. If the attempt has been made 
to define somewhat strictly the limits of its 
availability, it has been equally the pur- 
pose to do such hurried justice as the time 
allowed to its value within those limits. 
The cuneiform inscriptions do not explain 
all the things that need explanation, from 
Genesis to Malachi, and they introduce 
grave problems of their own. But it is, 
for all that, largely by their aid, supple- 
mented by modern discoveries in other 
archaeological fields, that the inquiries 
about ancient peoples, which the eager 
mind of our day is putting so restlessly, 
can receive answers that begin to satisfy. 
We are coming, by degrees, to a time when 
we may construct a full and accurate his- 



83 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

tory of those lands and those centuries 
which saw the growth, the development, the 
proud culmination, the ruin, and the par- 
tial recovery of the Hebrew national life. 
Our interest in that life is unique. It was 
the life which preserved to the world the 
knowledge of the Lord of lords ; the life of 
the people to whom the law was given, and 
the promises were entrusted, and the proph- 
ets spoke, and the special deliverances of 
God were vouchsafed, that from their midst 
might spring the Deliverer of all men. 

Therefore it is for us to welcome the 
light and knowledge that God has bestowed 
upon us ; to rejoice in them with perfect 
confidence that they are for good and not 
for evil ; to learn to use them honorably, 
and wisely, as it is fitting for Christian 
exegetes and critics to use them — and to be 
still on the alert, watching and listening: 
for fuller wisdom, if the divine Providence 
shall send it to us. 



IX OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 87 

Assyria lias not spoken her last word to 
men, and probably will not in our day ; 
Egypt is full of voices, only half inter- 
preted; the Hittites, who once defied As- 
syria, and marched out to fight Egypt with 
undaunted front, have hardly yet begun to 
speak again, after a long stillness. Other 
words beside, uttered ages ago, but not yet 
audible to modern ears, may be on their 
way to us, out of the remote distance of 
the centuries. It is for us to catch these 
messages and understand them, that we 
may fit them into the great fabric of ap- 
prehended and acknowledged truth, to the 
enrichment of ourselves, and those who 
shall be reached by our ministry, and to 
the glory of our common Lord. 



88 assyriology: its use axd abuse 



LITERATURE. 



The books here named, for the most part 
easily accessible, treat exclusively or in part 
of the relations between Assyriology and 
the Old Testament : 

Eberhakd Schkadeb (Prof, at Berlin) : Die Keilin- 
schriften und das Alte Testament, Giessen, 1872 ; 2d 
ed., greatly enlarged, Giessen, 1883, pp. viii, 618. The 
author is one of the leaders among Assyriologists. His 
book contains inscriptions in transliteration, transla- 
tions into German, abundant notes, discussions, and 
glossaries. It has also a valuable chronological ex- 
cursus. The section on the Babylonian Deluge-tab- 
lets is contributed by Paul Haupt (Prof, at Gottin- 
gen and Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore). 

Cunningham Getkte (London) : Hours xcith the Bible ; or, 
The Scriptures in the Light of Modern Discovery and 
Knowledge, 6 vols., London, 1880-81 ; New York, 1881- 
81, pp. xiv, 512 ; 529 ; xxi, 193 ; xvi, 192 ; 196 ; vi, 
511 (Am. Ed.). A good compilation. The best book 
in English covering the whole ground. Illustrated. 

F. Yigouboux (Priest of St. Sulpice, Paris) : La Bible et 
les Decouvertes Modernes, 2 vols., Paris, 1877; 3d Ed., 
4 vols., Paris, 1881 (my copy has 1882 on outside), pp. 
x, 459 ; 552 ; 559 ; 572. An excellent compilation, 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 89 

dealing with discoveries in Palestine and Egypt, as 
well as Assyria ; profusely illustrated, and brought 
well up to the date of issue. 

William Harris Eule (Croydon, Eng.) and J. Corbet 
Anderson : Biblical Monuments. Croydon, 1871-73, 
pp. xvi, 263. Valuable chiefly for plates. Very fine 
heliotype reproductions of sculptures, cuneiform in- 
scriptions, and MSS. in various languages. 

The f olio win o; are either brief or limited 
to particular topics : 

George Smith (British Museum ; d. 1876) : The Chaldean 
Account of Genesis. London and New York, 1876. Ee- 
vised ed., by A. H. Sayce, London and New York, 
1880, pp. xxiv, 337. The first connected account of 
the " Genesis-tablets. " Illustrated. A German trans- 
lation, George Smith's Ghalddische Genesis, Leipzig, 
1876, pp. xiv, 321, contains a preface and valuable 
notes by Friedrich Delitzsch. 

: Assyrian Discoveries. London and New 



York, 1875, pp. xvi, 461. Illustrated. 

Franqois Lenormant (Prof, at National Library, Paris ; d. 
1883) : ' Les Origines de VHistoire, d'apres la Bible et les 
Traditions des Peuples Orientaux. Vol. I., Paris, 1880, 
pp. xxii, 630 ; vol II., 1, Paris, 1882, pp. 561 ; vol. 
II., 2 (posthumous), Paris, 1884. A work of great 
learning and brilliant execution. 

• : The Beginnings of History, according to 



the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples. From 



90 ASSYRIOLOGY I ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

the Creation of Man to the Deluge. (Trans, of vol. I., 
above.) New York, 1882, pp. xxx, 588. 

E. Scheader (Berlin) : Die Keilinschriften und die Ge- 
schichtsforschung. Giessen, 1878, pp. viii, 556. Excel- 
lent discussions of particular historical questions ; e.g., 
Ahab, the Eponym Canon, Tiglath Pileser, etc. 

Frtedrich Deeitzsch (Prof, at Leipzig) : TFo Lag Das 
Paradies ? Eine Biblisch-Assyriologische Studie. Leip- 
zig, 1881, pp. viii, 346. The author is in the first 
rank of Assyriologists. He endeavors to locate the 
garden of Eden in Babylonia. 

Paul Haupt (Prof, at Gottingen and Baltimore) : Der 
Keilinschriftliche Sintfluthbericht. Leipzig, 1881, pp. 
viii, 30. — The Cuneiform Account of the Deluge (trans. 
of above, slightly abridged, and without the notes, by 
S. Bcexham), Old Testament Student, Nov., 1883. 

Henet G. To atktx s : Studies in the Times of Abraham, 
I. London, 1879, x^p. xviii, 228. Fine plates. 

George Evans (Hibbert Fellow) : An Essay on Assyri- 
ology. London, 1883, pp. 75 (a cuneiform text ap- 
pended). 

A. H. Satce (Prof, at Oxford) : Fresh Light from the 
Ancient Monuments (By-paths of Bible Knowledge, 
III.). London, Keligious Tract Society, n. d. [1883], 
pp. 199. Illustrated. 

: The Ancient Empires of the East. London 

and New York, 1884, pp. xxiv, 301 (Am. Ed.). 

Geoege Bawijnson (Canon and Prof, at Oxford) : His- 
torical Illustrations of the Old Testament. London, So- 
cietv for Prom. Christian Knowledge, n. d. American 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 91 

editions with different imprints. My edition was 
copyrighted 1873, and bears date on title-page, Chi- 
cago, 1880, pp. x, 237. Now somewhat antiquated. 

: The Origin of Nations. London, Relig. 



Tract Soc. [1877] ; New York, 1881, pp. xiv, 283 (Am. 
Ed.). 

: The Religions of the Ancient World. Lon- 



don, Eel. Tract Soc. [1883] ; New York, 1883, pp. xiv, 
249 (Am. Ed.). 

: Egypt and Babylon, from Sacred and Pro- 



fane Sources. New York and London, 1885, pp. 329 
(Am. Ed.). 

W. H. Rule: Oriental Records, I, Monumental, II, His- 
torical. London, 1877, pp. iv, 247 ; ii, 242. 

Translations (frequently imperfect) of 
Assyrian and Babylonian documents may 
be found in : 

Records of the Past, vols. I. -XII. London, n. d. [1873- 
81]. Only the odd vols, contain Assyrian and Baby- 
lonian documents, the even vols., Egyptian. The vols, 
are small and designed for popular use. 

Useful references (incidental) are found 
in : 

W. Robertson Smith (Cambridge, Eng. ) : The Prophets 
of Israel. Edinburgh and New York, 1882, pp. xvi, 
444. 



92 AS8YKI0L0GY : ITS [7SE AXD ABUSE 

Charles Bruston (Montauban) : Histoire Critique de la 
Litterature Prophetique des Hebreux. Paris, 1881, pp. 
viii, 272. 



Sinall, popular histories are : 

M. E. Harkness : Assyrian Life and History. London, 
1883. (By-Paths of Bible Knowledge, II.) Illus- 
trated. 

Ernest A. W. Budge (British Museum) : Babylonian Life 
and History. London, 1884 (By-paths of Bible Knowl- 
edge, V.), pp. 168. Illustrated. 

F. Murdter (Stuttgart) : Kurzgefasste Geschichte Baby- 
loniens und Assyriens. Stuttgart, 1882, pp. viii, 279. 
Illustrated. Preface and Appendix by Friedrich 
Delitzsch. 



For reference are also to be recom- 
mended : 

Max Duncejer : Geschichte des Alterthums, 5 vols., 5th ed. 
Leipzig, 1878-81. 

: History of Antiquity (Eng. trans, of above, 

by Evelyn Abbott, Fellow and Tutor, Balliol Coll., 
Oxford), 6 vols. 1877-82. 



George Bawltnson : The Five Great Monarchies of the 
Ancient Eastern World, 3 [4] vols. London, 1862-67 : 
4th ed., London, 1879. New York, 1880. 



IN OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 93 

All recent critical Commentaries on the 
historical and prophetical books of the Old 
Testament recognize the results of cunei- 
form decipherment. Many valuable ar- 
ticles on the subject will also be found 
scattered through various periodicals, and 
in the Transactions of learned Societies. 

Much important information will be 
found in recent Encyclopedias. See, in 
particular, articles on Assyriological topics 
in the following : 

Real-Encyclopadie filr protestantische Theologie und Kir- 
che, ed. by Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck. Leipzig, vols. 
I. -XV., 1877-85. (Assyriol. articles largely by Fbiedk. 
Delttzsch.) 

A Religious Encyclopaedia ; or, Dictionary of Biblical, 
Historical, Doctrinal and Practical Theology. Based on 
the Real-Encyclopddie of Herzog, Plitt, and Hauck, ed. 
by Philip Schaff. 3 vols. New York, 1882-84. 

Calmer Bibellexicon. Biblisches Handworterbuch, illust- 
riert. 1 vol. in 8 parts, ed. by P. Zeller. Calw and 
Stuttgart, 1884. (Assyriol. arts, by Friedr. Delitzsch.) 

Encyclopcedia Britannica, 9th ed., London and New York, 
vols. L-XVIII., 1878-85. (Assyriological arts, by Sir 
Henry Eawlinson, A. H. Sayce, W. K. Smith, etc.) 



94 ASSYKIOLOGY : ITS USE AXD ABUSE 

Encyclopedia Americana (American Supplement to 
above) ; New York, Philadelphia, and London, vols. 
I, II., 1883-84 

Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieuses, ed. by F. Lichten- 
beeger. 13 vols. Paris, 1877-82. (Assyriological arts, 
by Jules Oppebt, Philippe Berger, etc.) 

With special reference to Chronology 
may be named : 

George Smith : The Assyrian Eponym Canon. London, 
n. d. [1875], pp. viii, 206. To be nsed with some cau- 
tion. 

Feitz Hommel (Munich) : Abriss der Babylonisch-Assyr- 
ischen und Israelitischen Geschichte . . . in Ta- 
bellenform. Leipzig, 1880, pp. 20. Gives on the whole 
the best survey, and is very convenient. Some details 
need modification. 

Adolph Kamphatjsen (Bonn) : Die Chronologie der He- 
brdischen Konige. Bonn, 1883, pp. 104. 

Victor Floigl (Graz) : Die Chronologie der Bibel, des 
Manetho und Beros. Leipzig, 1880, pp. x, 287. 

: Cyrus und Herodot nach den neugefundenen 



Keilinschriften. Leipzig, 1881, pp. 198. 



: Geschichte des Semitischen Alterthums, in 

Tabellen. Leipzig, 1882, pp. 97, with 5 large folding- 
tables. — The last three books are full of ingenuity, but 
also of wild speculation. 



IIS" OLD TESTAMENT STUDY. 95 

Following is a selected list, arranged al- 
phabetically by authors, of brief treatises 
and addresses bearing on our subject, and 
published since 1878 on the continent of 
Europe : 

Elie Bonnet (Clairac, France) : Les Decouvertes Assyri- 
ennes et le Livre de la Genese. Montauban, 1884, pp. 
119. 

Budolf Buddensieg (Dresden) : Die Assyrischen Aus- 
grabungen und das Alte Testament. Heilbronn, 1880 
(Zeitfragen des christlicken Volkslebens, No. 27), pp. 
76. 

Max Bitdinger (Vienna) : Die neuentdeckten Inschriften 
uber Gyrus. Vienna, 1881 (Sitzungsberichte der phil.- 
hist. Classe der kaiserl. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 
1880), pp. 17. 

A. Delattre (S. J.) : Les Inscriptions Historiques de 
Ninive et de Baby lone. Paris, 1879, pp. 90. 

August Dillmann (Berlin) : JJeber die Herhuvft der ur- 
geschichtlichen Sagen der Hebrder. Berlin, 1882 (Sitz- 
ungsberichte der konigl. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss.), pp. 
14. — On the Origin of the Primitive Historical Traditions 
of the Hebrews (trans, of above, by G. H. Whittemore), 
Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1883. 

Phtlipp Keiper (Zweibriicken) : Die neuentdeckten In- 
schriften uber Cyrus. Zweibriicken, 1882 (Programm), 
pp. 37. 



96 ASSYEIOLOGY : ITS TSE AXD ABUSE. 

W. Lotz (Erlangen): Qucestionum de Historia Sabbati 
Libri Duo. Leipzig, 1883 (Habilitationsrede), pp. 109. 
Also under title Qucestiones de Historia Sabbati. Leip- 
zig, 1883, pp. 112 (some notes added). 

W. Xowack (Strassburg) : Die assyriscli-babylcnisclien 
Keil-Inscliriften und das Alte Testament. Berlin, 1878, 
pp. 28. 

Anton Scholz (Wurzburg) : Die KeilscJvriftur'kunden und 
die Genesis. "Wurzburg and Vienna, 1877, pp. 91. 

Eduaed Suess (Vienna) : Lie Sintfluth, Eine geologiscne 
Studie. Prag and Leipzig, 1883 (from "Das Antlitz 
der Erde "), pp. 74. 

C. P. Tiele (Leiden) : De vrucht der Assyriologie voor de 
xergelijkende geschiedenis der godsdiensten. Amster- 
dam, 1877. German Trans, by K. Friederict : Die 
Assyriologie und Hire Ergebnisse fur die Vergleichende 
Religionsgeschichte. Leipzig, n. d. [1878], pp. 24. 

Georg Friedrich Ungee (Wurzburg) : Kyaxares und 
Astyages. Munich, 1882 (from Abhandlungen der 
konigl. bayer. Akad. d. Wissensch.), pp. 85. 



Biblical Study: 

ITS PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND A HISTORY OF ITS 

BRANCHES; TOGETHER WITH A CATALOGUE 

OF A REFERENCE LIBRARY FOR 

BIBLICAL STUDY. 

By CHARLES A. BRIGGS, D.D., 

PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND COGNATE LANGUAGES IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



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THE DAWN OF HISTORY. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO PRE-HISTORIC STUDY. 
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THEBEGINNINGSOFHISTORY 

According to the Bible and the Traditions of the Oriental Peoples. From 
the Creation of Man to the Deluge By Francois LenormanTj 
Professor of Archoeology at the National Library of France, etc. 
(Translated from the Second French Edition). With an introductioE 
by Francis Brown, Associate Professor in Biblical Philology. 
Union Theological Seminary. 



1 Vol., 12mo 600 pages, - - ~ $2..~0, 



" What should we see in the first chapters of Genesis ? " writes M. Lenor- 
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This is the problem which I have been led to examine by comparing the nar- 
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xi revelation, but a devout confessor of what came by Moses ; as well as of what came 
by Christ. In this explanation of Chaldean, Babylonian, Assyrian and Phenician 
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44 From the mass of tradition here examined it would seem that if these ancient 
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Final Causes. 

MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 

Translated from the Second French Editio7i. With a Preface by 
Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D. 



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The Theory of Preaching, 

OR 

LECTURES ON HOMILETICS. 

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Religion and Chemistry, 

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The Religions of the Ancient World 

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By GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A. 



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THE~ORIGIN of nations 

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A NEW EDITION NOW READY CF 

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An Account of Explorations and Discoveries on the 
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will be welcomed by all scholars and antiquaries." 

From the N. Y. Evening Post. 

" Mr. Smith's book is, in clearness and accuracy, all that could be wished ; himself a 
great authority on Assyrian antiquities, he has prepared a work which no person who has 
studied, or intends to study, this fascinating subject should fail to read." 

From the Cincinnati Commercial. 

" It is in the hope that these rich, first fruits of investigation will stimulate inquiry, 
and induce the British Government to take hold of the matter, and bring its influence to 
bear in such a manner upon the Ottoman Government as to secure its co-operation in 
prosecuting a thorough system of investigation, that we close Mr. Smith's absorbingly 
interesting book." 

From the Watchman and Reflector. 

" His book is a simple, straightforward record of what he accomplished, written not 
to catch the applause of the ignorant, but to inform the wise and the thoughtful. The 
narrative of personal experience is interesting, without trace of straining for sensational 
effect. But the chief value of the work is for its account of things accomplished. 1 ' 



*** For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
trice, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 



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